In a surprising move, India’s top intelligence agency R&AW has sacked 4 senior level officials for alleged ‘non performance’ in the past 1 year. These officials are secretary level officials and have been handed over compulsory premature retirement. The decision was made after reviewing their service records as well as their annual performance appraisals.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has a rule which allows the government to sack the non performers even after they have completed 30 years of their service or after they have crossed 50 years of age.

Though the present government is strict about enforcing this rule and wants it to be followed diligently, but the results have been moderate across different departments. The DoPT on September 11, 2015, issued an order as per which the employees can be terminated prematurely under the Fundamental Rule 56 (j) or Rule 48 of CCS (Pension) rules.

The said 4 officials were sacked under the Article 56 (j) as they had crossed the age of 50 years. Moreover, these officials were turning into ‘unproductive” assets for the agency.
In the recent past also, RAW had made use of ‘golden handshake’ for getting rid of tainted RAW officials even before their retirement age.